Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants

Bradford Angier

Essential information on each plant's characteristics, distribution, and edibility as well as updated taxonomy and 18 new species

How to find, prepare, and eat plants growing in the wild

This illustrated guide to North American wild edibles has been a nature classic for over thirty years. In this new edition, David K. Foster revises Bradford Angier's invaluable foraging handbook, updating the taxonomy and adding more than a dozen species. Scientific information for a general audience and full-color illustrations combine with intriguing accounts of the plants' uses, making this a practical guide for modern-day foragers.

The first of these disfigurements, dense clusters of twigs that may be scattered through the crown in large numbers, make it frequently possible to recognize this tree at a great distance. In the Southwest, it is common to find hackberries filled with the common mistletoe, the parasitic plant so widely used for Christmas decorations. DISTRIBUTION: These trees and shrubs range over a large proportion of the continent in habitats varying from swampy, wet areas and stream banks to rich, rocky

and long fibrous roots, forms yielding green mats where it grows. Innumerable, egg-shaped, briefly stemmed, finely toothed, veiny, thick, small, and tough leaves give it its verdancy. Having a hard shine on top, they are lighter beneath. Growing on prostrate branches up to several feet long, they seldom lift more than 2 or 3 inches off the ground they shield. These leaves persist on the vines for more than one season, browning and toughening with age. At all stages they are odorless. The

ancient Navajo tradition that no piñons are to be gathered from the ground or rodent caches; these may carry hantavirus. PLANTAIN Plantago FAMILY: Plantain (Plantaginaceae) OTHER NAMES: Seaside Plantain, Goosetongue, Cart-Track Plant, Pale Plantain, English Plantain, Seashore Plantain, Common Plantain, Plain Plantain, Indian Wheat, Snake Weed, Rippleseed Plantain, Cuckoo’s Bread, Ribwort, Soldiers Herb. DESCRIPTION: Although nearly everyone knows plantain, few realize it is edible. It is a

Violet, Bird’s Foot Violet, Downy Yellow Violet. DESCRIPTION: North American violets (Viola species) are small herbaceous plants united by the shape of their spring flowers, which all have five petals. The four side petals are slightly smaller, and the lower fifth one has a spur or sac at the rear. The side petals are often bearded at the base, as is the throat of the lower petal. Various nectar guidelines also occur on these petals like a row of landing lights for bees. Leaf shape is highly